IPL 2018 | Andrew Tye thinks Chris Gayle was smart not to take risks against pacers

04/20/2018

Andrew Tye made heaps of praises on the ‘Gayle storm’ that hit Sunrisers Hyderabad in Mohali on Thursday and believed that the opener was right in not targeting the pacers early on. Tye said that Gayle’s shot selection and execution was spot-on and the explosive Caribbean played a perfect innings.

Kings XI Punjab speedster Andrew Tye, in his post-match interview, was all praises for his team’s opener and felt that he played a perfect innings. He pointed out that Gayle wanted to stay on the wicket till the end, which eventually destroyed SRH’s bowlers. Gayle's 63-ball ton included 11 sixes and helped KXIP post a total of 193/3. In reply, the Sunrisers fell short by 15 runs.

"Gayle played to perfection. He made sure that he stayed there till the end. You don't often see (spinner Rashid) Khan get hit for more than 25 in one over. To make Rashid concede that many runs (55 in four overs) was awesome," Tye said at the post-match presser.

"I think he went about it very well. He knew that once he got through the powerplay, the spin would come on and then he got into the rhythm against the spin. I think he was very smart about it not to take too many risks against the pacers (early on)," he said.

Tye has been regarded as a ‘T20 specialist’ for quite some time now and has been able to contain many explosive batsmen in his career. Pointing out to Gayle’s innings, he said that there was not much a bowler could have done in that situation and could have only waited for the batsmen to make mistake.

"I guess you could try and get him off strike but at the same time as pace bowlers you want to get him out because you know you have spin to come and he is lining up to attack them. It is different for every pitch you play on, tonight might have been the case of going short at him or could have been the case of just try him play some big shots and make him miss one," said the Australian pacer.

Tye got two wickets, which included the wicket of SRH skipper Kane Williamson, who looked quite good while batting. Tye believed that KXIP have got great a bowling line-up, who on their day can bowl out any opposition for less than 100.

“Apart from Mohit Sharma, Barinder Sran, skipper Ravichandran Ashwin, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman and me, there are a couple of others too who can bowl as well which makes the side a balanced unit,” he said.

KXIP players’ have been performing consistently and there hardly seem to be any room for changes. Tye mentioned that there will be few selection headaches, when Axar Patel would be fit to play.

Tye used the knuckle-ball quite efficiently in the match. He stated that he tries to figure out what’s working and then, sticks with that.

"I try and figure out what is working for me on the day. Today was knuckle ball and I stuck with that. Sometimes it works, sometimes you get hit into the crowd and you look like an idiot, but that's alright," he said.

Meanwhile, Sunrisers bowler Siddharth Kaul, who was on the receiving end of the Gayle storm said, "Gayle was executing smartly and he was challenging our main bowlers and he played really well."

Kaul felt that losing opener Shikhar Dhawan, who had to retire hurt after getting hit on his elbow, was a huge setback to them. Yet, he believed that they did their best to reach the total, but fell short by a tiny margin in the end.

"In the end, we did our best and came close to the target losing by only 15 runs," he said.

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